The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-03-26

| W
"The number of imitation dia
monds worn these days are enor
movs," said a fashionable jewelel
to a reporter.
"What limitations are most worn?
"The double diamond, a clever
imitation produced by splitting 8
worthless or defective stone and
backing it with tinfoil. Diamonds
of this kind have to be carefully
mounted or else detection will be
easy. The business of intensifyine
the sparkle of n pale, cheap dia-
mond is now reduced to a science
Gems are frequently split in two, a
deeper tone of color introduced,
and they are joined together again,
producing stone that has beauti-
full fire and which sells for three
or four times its original value. The
doublet' business is extremely
profitable, but, of course no reputa-
ble dealer can afford to sell any
without injuring his trade and
reputation. A liridary, one Zoco-
limo, invented the 'doublet' many
years ago. He used a bit of crys-
tai as bottom to a makeup, and
painted it with transparent glue.
He then joined together two cheap
thin stones, and produced gem
that appeared finer than the real.
1t was not long before his method
was detected.
"The quartz gems are popular
and come next to the 'doublets' in
clever counterfeit. They are gems
of course of their kind, but not
what they are often sold for. Quartz
can stand the test of the file, which
glass cannot do, hence its availa-
bility. There are other stones and
certain varieties of topaz which are
as hard as diamonds; and being
colorless they are frequently cut
and neatly polished and passed as
diamonds of the first water. Of
late colorless gem material has
gone up in prices, owing to the de-
mand from the bogus diamond
manufacturers Then there are the
paste diamonds, SO easily taken by
amateurs for genuine. The COM
position for paste gems is mix
ture of violin grass and borax.
These manufactured stones are very
hard to detect, and sometimes find
their way into rich families who
are unwittingly imposed upon. The
glittering gems that can be seen on
Broadway after the matinees are
over. half the time are clever inn
itations, either doublets, quartz or
paste.
"But at the swell society balls /
confess the gems worn there by the
wealthy are genuine. Extremely
wealty people are not easily i'm
posed on; they always have jew
eler' who examines carefully their
gems before they are purchased.
The very moderately woll-to-do
people are often deceived, and young
men who want diamonds to sparkle
before their sweethearts.' Some of
them, though, go boldly and ask
for the limitations and disport
them as genuine. Mock pearls are
frequently seen, too, but the dia-
mond is Initiated more than any
precious stone. The ruby is some
times manufactured from recipe
which comprises twenty parts of
antimony and glass, five hundred
of strass, half each of purple of
Cass;um and gold. Aventurine is
also a gem glass frequently used in
limitations. These limitations Of
course have some effect upon the
sale of genuine gems. but not to an
extent that is ruinous. l think,
though, that all jewellers who sell
limitations should deal exclusively
in such goods and so advertise.
The harm comes from the attempt
to palm off counterfeits for real
stones"